The U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,798 to Mizushima et al discloses one form of a seat structure applicable for two-door type vehicles in which a front seat is manually inclinable for forming a passage allowing passenger seating in the rear seat area of the vehicle. In the Mizushima et al structure a pair of rear seat support legs are releasable from the floor panel and pivotally secured to the seat. Actuation means operates to fold the rear legs below the seat in response to inclining the front seat, providing easier access to the rear seat area. The Mizushima patent is representative of prior art tiltable seat structures wherein the operation is inconvenient in that a rear seat passenger is required to manually tilt the seat structure forwardly while getting in or out of the vehicle. Also, in cases where the vehicle is parked on an upward grade, for example, it may be necessary for an entering or exiting rear seat passenger to hold the seat in its forwardly tilted position if the pivoted seat's center of gravity is not located overcenter of its pivot axis.
Other tiltable vehicle seat structures are illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,732,169 to Provost et al; 1,879,037 to Bell; 3,879,082 and 3,933,330 to Gwin; 3,880,464 to Murphy et al; 4,484,779 to Suzuki; 4,925,229 to Siebler; and 5,037,155 to Holm et al.
Schwartz et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,143, assigned to the assignee of the instant invention, discloses a pivotal vehicle seat and riser, having a gas spring assisted latch assembly operably connected thereto for tilting the entire seat and riser structure forwardly to an easy entry position without passenger assistance upon release of the latch.